


You Keep Me On My Toes

by meanderingmirth



Category: VIXX
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 20:51:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5063656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meanderingmirth/pseuds/meanderingmirth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hakyeon owns a novelty sock shop and Taekwoon comes by to buy socks for a special reason.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Keep Me On My Toes

**Author's Note:**

> something short and fun! I spent fifteen minutes on reddit looking up feet puns for this, lol.
> 
> enjoy!

Hakyeon had just finished placing the newest mole rat-patterned socks onto the “ANIMAL SOCKS” pile when he heard the bells on the front door chime as it opened. A gust of chilly October air spilled into the store, and Hakyeon barely managed to suppress a shiver before he leapt out from behind the shelves to greet the new customer.

“Welcome to  _Feeties_ , the one and only novelty sock shop! How can I help you?”

The newcomer came to a halt before Hakyeon. He was tall and his hair was dark and swept up to the side. He had a deep frown on his face, which made his already small mouth look even smaller, and he looked extremely out of place with his custom-fitted suit amongst the weird layout of the store.

“I need you to find me socks that would get me fired,” the stranger said without preamble, and that was how Hakyeon knew, deep in his heart, that their special relationship was undoubtably afoot.

+

The stranger’s name was Taekwoon, and he worked in the Finance department of a large real estate company. According to him, his job was hell but he didn’t want to piss his supervisors off, which was why he was trying to wriggle out of it in the most roundabout way possible. Apparently, that path entailed the act of passive-aggressively defying the strict dress code and driving his seniors nuts with a collection of ridiculous socks until they actually kicked him out of the company.

“Impossible,” Hakyeon gasped when Taekwoon walked back into his store two weeks later, still frowning and still wearing his suit. “The monkey socks didn’t do the trick?!”

“No,” Taekwoon sighed, stopping at the edge of the carpeted section of the store. He toed off his polished dress shoes, placed them into one of the little shoe cubbies, and then stepped onto the carpet, wiggling his monkey-socked feet with furrowed brows. When Hakyeon had designed his store, he saw no reason for customers to wear shoes while shopping for socks, and thus sectioned off a whole no-shoe zone in the sock browsing area. He was quite the radical thinker, if he did say so himself.

“I need weirder socks,” Taekwoon said, absent-mindedly loosening the tie around his neck as he followed Hakyeon through the shelves. “Something that will make a bolder statement.”

“I’m not sure what can beat the monkey socks,” Hakyeon huffed. “Are you sure it didn’t work?”

“My boss glared at me today,” Taekwoon shrugged, slipping out of his jacket as well. “But he didn’t say anything, even after I stretched my legs out in the break room and showed the monkey mooning each other on the front.”

“Damn,” Hakyeon whistled as he sorted through socks with flying porpoises on them and tossed a few others into a basket. “Your superiors are made of really tough stuff.”

“Unfortunately,” Taekwoon agreed. He accepted the pile of socks Hakyeon dumped into his arms and began inspecting them. “I just need something that’ll give it another push, and then I’ll finally be free to do what I want.”

“Say, if you don’t want to be a financial analyst anymore, then what do you want to do after you quit?” Hakyeon asked, tilting his head.

“Watch dogs swim,” Taekwoon replied without hesitation as he picked up the anchovy-patterned socks. “More specifically, I want to work at those dog swimming lessons.”

“Is that... is that a thing?” Hakyeon asked, eyes wide, because he would’ve never pegged stoic, suit-wearing Taekwoon as an animal lover. But he was also quickly coming to realize that Taekwoon wasn’t as frowny as he first thought the man to be, and in fact, he was a rather laid-back individual who apparently likes dogs enough to swim with them for a living.

“Of course it’s a thing,” Taekwoon hummed, trying on the thermometer-patterned socks now. “Beats having to look at bar graphs every day.”

Then again, Hakyeon owned a sock shop. Who was he to judge?

+

The anchovy-patterned socks didn’t work. The ugly out-of-season Christmas socks didn’t either. Neither did the pom-pom socks, the blinding neon orange and turquoise ones, or the terrifying anime socks with robots all over them. Even the special socks Hakyeon had busted out for Taekwoon, which were the chicken socks that were designed to look as though the bright yellow chicken was eating the wearer’s foot, didn’t manage to seal the deal. It was nearly as frustrating for Hakyeon as it as for Taekwoon, who was still trudging to  _Feeties_  after work to buy more socks with an upset slouch ruining his tall build. He’d prided himself in recommending great socks for all occasions, and if he couldn’t even help Taekwoon, how could he call himself a sock expert?

He wondered if Taekwoon might give up soon, but the man still came in, day after day, sometimes with a tray of coffee in hand or some pamphlets from the local dog pool to inform Hakyeon what his dream job would entail. Hakyeon could imagine in; Taekwoon standing in a pool in a wetsuit, positively delighted as he watched puppies splash about (the man was already on cloud nine when he showed Hakyeon pictures of dogs anyway).

But he was already starting to grow fond Taekwoon’s company regardless of anything they talked about (or didn’t talk about, because Taekwoon had started taking cat naps after work on his cushioned benches now), so perhaps his opinion was a little biased at this point. 

+

“I can’t stand it anymore,” Taekwoon groaned, holding his head between his hands as he sat hunched over on his favourite bench. “I’m ready to just hand in a letter of resignation, but I’m too deep in this sock fiasco to back out now.”

“Your pride is on the line,” Hakyeon agreed solemnly, patting Taekwoon understandingly on the back. “I’m sorry I haven’t been able to find the proper socks for you.”

“It’s fine,” Taekwoon sighed, lifting his head to stare tiredly up at Hakyeon. “You’ve been very helpful throughout all this. I’m guessing this isn’t a request you get very often.”

“It isn’t,” Hakyeon laughed. “But hey, you’re special. And I had a lot of fun picking out socks for you too. My sole purpose here is customer satisfaction, and I won’t be satisfied until you are fired from your company by a unanimous decision from no less than three superiors.”

“But I don’t know how to make it any more obvious for those guys,” Taekwoon murmured, running a hand through his hair. “What else is left?”

Suddenly, an beautiful, wonderful, god-sent idea struck Hakyeon like a kick to the butt. He knew what to do.

“Tell you what,” Hakyeon said, spinning around so that he faced Taekwoon. “Go home now and come back on Sunday evening. I’ll have something for you then.”

“Eh?” Taekwoon asked, blinking cutely in confusion. Hakyeon let out a positively devilish giggle and did a little twirl, brain already whirring with ideas.

“Trust me,” he smirked. “This is gonna be the best pair of socks yet.”

+

Hakyeon didn’t do this often because his friends did not always appreciate getting socks for every holiday occasion from him, the ungrateful bastards, so it took him a little longer than he’d like to admit when he began knitting Taekwoon’s new socks because of how out of practice he was.

The pattern was a simple one and the colours were fairly normal too, but as Hakyeon knitted and knitted while he read the paper, cooked, and phoned his nephews over the weekend, he was confident that this pair of socks would be the one to end this long-standing battle.

+

“Open these when you get home,” Hakyeon said, grinning at Taekwoon when he handed over the gift box containing the socks on the Sunday evening, right before the closing time. “They’re custom-made, hand-knitted, one-of-a-kind Cha Hakyeon designed socks. You’re welcome.”

“You knitted me socks?” Taekwoon asked, brows furrowing. “You didn’t have to.”

“It was the only way,” Hakyeon said wisely, reaching over to pat Taekwoon’s hand. He liked how the other man looked without the stiff suit on; Taekwoon wore dark jeans and a loose white sweater and a comfortable-looking beanie yanked down past his ears. He looked relaxed and at ease.

“Thank you,” Taekwoon said softly, lifting the box with a mixture of curiosity and reverence. “I’ll wear these tomorrow.”

“Let me know how it goes,” Hakyeon replied, and happily stuck a price tag on the bagged milk-patterned socks he was currently adding to the inventory.

+

For all his bravado the day before, Hakyeon couldn’t focus at all during his shift. What if Taekwoon didn’t like his finished product? What if it got Taekwoon into trouble? What if Taekwoon never came back to  _Feeties_? He was so preoccupied he managed to put the horrific clown socks into the “TRAFFIC SIGN SOCKS” pile.

The day passed by, people came in to check out his socks, and Hakyeon managed to sell a pair of socks with sliced bread patterned all over it to a high school student singing along to a Naruto opening theme as he shopped. Then, rush hour came, and soon Taekwoon would step through those doors like he’d been doing for the past month now and tell Hakyeon if he still had his job.

But Taekwoon didn’t come in.

Hakyeon chewed his lip as he straightened up the office supplies behind his cash register. Half an hour passed. He vacuumed the carpet for a while, grudgingly humming along to the anime song that was now stuck in his head, and waited. Another half hour passed. Hakyeon re-organized the whole section of galaxy socks in the backroom by size, and then re-did it all again by colour, before messing it all up in favour of similar star patterns. It had been an hour and a half now. He swept up, glanced out the window, drew more sock designs into his sketchbook, and waited some more.

+

At half past six, Taekwoon burst into the sock store.

Hakyeon jumped up from where he’d been sitting, slumped, on Taekwoon’s usual nap bench, and nearly tripped over his own feet trying to stand up.

“Taekwoon?” Hakyeon called, nervous for once, and watched as Taekwoon yanked his shoes off, tossed his bag aside and covered the distance between them with a few long strides. Then, he placed his hands on either side of Hakyeon’s face, leaned in, and kissed him.

Hakyeon spluttered, which was a terrible thing to do when somebody is kissing you, but Taekwoon didn’t seem to mind. His hands were warm and surprisingly soft against Hakyeon’s jaw, and the slight height difference meant that Taekwoon had to tilt Hakyeon’s head back over so slightly as he leaned forwards, mouth moving smoothly against Hakyeon’s.

Letting out a weak sigh, Hakyeon dared to kiss back, hands coming up to clutch at the sides of Taekwoon’s jacket. They stood there for a moment, kissing in the middle of a sock store, until Taekwoon finally stepped back and lowered his head, his face aflame.

“Sorry,” he said softly. “I was— I got caught up.”

“Not a problem,” Hakyeon said faintly, because Taekwoon was a really, really good kisser and he may or may not have had a rather ridiculous little crush on this customer from day one. “But the socks, your job, did it— did it work?”

Taekwoon’s answer was a wide, wide grin and a crushing hug. “It did,” he said, his voice adorably high with giddiness. “It worked so well, Hakyeon, oh, you should’ve seen their faces when I yanked my pants past my ankles and put my feet up on the board room table during the regional meeting.”

“You did  _what_?” Hakyeon cried, but he was laughing at the mental image, clutching happily to Taekwoon’s back.

“I was late today because I was getting a reprimand from my boss,” Taekwoon laughed, his arms tight around Hakyeon’s waist. “Something about them managing to turn a blind eye to my blatant disregard for the dress code for so long. But these socks were the final straw, apparently, and they said that since I had such a clear message for them they had no choice but to put up with my demands.”

“This is the best thing I’ve heard all day,” Hakyeon chuckled, shaking his head fondly. Taekwoon drew back, and the expression on his face was so warm when he smiled, Hakyeon swore his heart melted a little.

“Thank you for your help,” Taekwoon said. “I really appreciated it.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Hakyeon chuckled. “Although, I must really comment on your manners. I’ve heard of people kissing right after the first date, but what kind of a man kisses before they’ve even gone on one?”

“Then what do you call all those meet ups at this store for the past month?” Taekwoon complained, but Hakyeon could tell he was hiding a laugh.

“At least treat me to dinner!” Hakyeon shrieked, reaching up to pinch Taekwoon’s cheeks. Long fingers immediately pried his hands off, and Taekwoon smiled down at him, holding Hakyeon’s hands close to his chest.

“Alright then, Cha Hakyeon, sock maker extraordinaire,” Taekwoon said, leaning in so that their foreheads bumped. Hakyeon blushed. “Will you go on a dinner date with me?”

“Duh,” Hakyeon replied, and Taekwoon’s eyes crinkled beautifully before he leaned in for another kiss. This time, Hakyeon was ready, and his hands were already sliding into Taekwoon’s hair as their mouths pressed against one another’s. The kiss sent a fond warmth that spread from Hakyeon’s red cheeks all the way down to the tips of his toes, where he wiggled his sailboat socks against Taekwoon’s simple knitted white ones, which had the big, bolded red words  **I QUIT**  patterned all over Taekwoon’s feet.

+

 

+

Taekwoon was sitting behind the cashier’s desk, reading the instructor’s manual for the doggy swimming lessons as he munched on some of Hakyeon’s homemade pumpkin spice biscuits. Hakyeon had just finished placing some freshly unwrapped socks with the various trigonometry formulas stitched all over it onto the “MATHEMATICS SOCKS” pile when he heard the bells on the front door chime as it opened. He straightened up, smoothed down the front of his apron, and flounced out to greet the customer.

There was a young man standing at the edge of the carpeted section, wearing a backwards snapback with a set of headphones around his ears. His bleached hair stuck out from the sides of his cap, like he’d jammed it onto his head in a hurry, and he was breathing hard like he’d run all the way to  _Feeties’._

“I need your help,” the newcomer said, panting as he braced himself on his knees. “I forgot to get a gift for me and my boyfriend’s anniversary and I need something unique and I heard you sold cool socks so I was wondering if you had any bean related socks in stock because my boyfriend owns a bean store and it would be really really great if I got him something that showed much I care about him caring about his job.” The customer said that all in one breath, and when he finished he fell onto the carpet, wheezing.

Hakyeon glanced over to Taekwoon, who was watching the scene unfold with an amused expression. When his boyfriend caught him looking, Taekwoon smirked and tilted his head towards the “FOOD SOCKS” section.

“You’ve come to the right place then, my friend,” Hakyeon grinned as he helped the customer up, biting back a laugh. “Let me show you what I’ve got...”

**Author's Note:**

> the gist of this story was "weird professions" but Hakyeon was probably the only one to have a slightly strange job lmao. rejected ideas (of real occupations!) for Taekwoon's dream job included: dog food taster, dog surfing instructor, chicken gender determiners, professional line-standers and a fortune cookie writers.
> 
> I'd take a fortune from Taekwoon... "Never underestimate small group members because they will grow and then bully you after debut"
> 
> thanks for reading!


End file.
